Time to Abandon SHIP

As a UC Berkeley graduate student who had the Student Health Insurance Plan (SHIP) for this spring semester, I have been repeatedly dismayed and embarrassed at the blatant cost-cutting and cash-grubbing policies of the Tang Center and SHIP. Consider:

• Despite that many UC Berkeley students, especially graduate students, live off campus, SHIP forces students to initiate visits to the Tang Center, except for emergencies. So if you live in San Francisco, as many do, and you have a migraine at 5 p.m. on a Friday, you can either sit in traffic for 90 minutes or cram yourself onto Muni and BART to get to Berkeley. If you go to the ER, it’s covered, but only if the staff is willing to see you—and probably after a four-hour wait.

That’s a misuse of health services, and SHIP has a responsibility to contract with a variety of urgent care centers in the Bay Area to give students options for free or low-cost physician visits that are close to home. At least with insurers like Kaiser Permanente, you can choose a general practitioner that actually works in the same county you live in.

What about care when you’re out of town? What if a student with a spring internship on the East Coast starts feeling tired and weak, but blows off an expensive doctor’s visit and convinces herself she’s just overworked? Her anemia could put her life in danger. Lest people think that parents should cough up the cash for hometown doctor visits, by virtue of their tuition and fees payments (not to mention nice chunks of their paychecks into state taxes), the regents should reciprocate the favors by taking care of their kids.

• Unlike practically every other medical office, Tang does not grant students credit for 30 days to pay fees for services rendered. The seven-day policy results in a lot of penalty fees getting slapped on to CARS bills, especially for students who might be waiting on a measly work-study check. As the individuals who pay the salaries and justify the jobs of Tang employees, UC Berkeley students deserve a lot better.

• At Tang, a woman can’t see a female physician for a Well Woman exam. If you want a clinician of your own gender who may have more experience than a nurse practitioner learning to identify breast lumps and gynecological problems, too bad. The one physician who is doing the exams is male. That’s not a problem in itself, but female college students have grown up in an era of female gynecologists and family doctors, and some may not be comfortable with a male doctor. Again, students deserve more options.

• SHIP won’t pay for pre-employment physicals. The minute you bring a one-page form in to be filled out by a doctor, all your insurance benefits fly out the window and you’re liable for a $90 checkup. But if there's no form involved, it’s free. Of course, students rarely visit the doctor for checkups unless it’s needed for a particular reason. I am willing to bet that UC Berkeley students, preparing for their first jobs, have gotten a nasty shock to their wallets before they ever see a paycheck. So much for health benefits.

• Remember that SHIP is wallowing in the one of the most financially favorable patient bases in the country. The overwhelming majority of college students are young, healthy and doctor-averse, leading to a large difference in utilization of services compared to a clinic that serves middle-aged adults. These are students who essentially don’t redeem the insurance premiums they sink into SHIP every semester.

• While advertising its prescription drugs as having “low negotiated rates,” what the pharmacy doesn’t advertise is that students are often better off paying cash for the medicines and getting the 70 percent SHIP reimbursement. There are a lot of drugs out there that don’t even cost as much as the Tang pharmacy co-pays.

For all these reasons, UC Berkeley students should demand better, more respectful services from their health insurer. And as a last resort, students and parents can speak with their wallets, and put their premium money elsewhere—I hear Kaiser Permanente has great deals.

SHIP and the Tang health care system appear to be in the business of hammering costs down. Due to perhaps the powers that be who don’t want to pay higher reimbursement rates for outside doctors, students might be across the street from an urgent care center, but are unable to go inside.

UC Berkeley is the number one ranked public university in the country. But when it comes to student health care, there are just too many holes in the system. Vocal opposition to the restrictive SHIP policies could improve choices and services for all students. We’re worth it.

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